fnatic eliminate G2 from the Major
fnatic have eliminated G2 from ESL One Cologne 2016 after winning 16-13 on Train, thus removing the second best team in the world early on from the ninth CS:GO Major.
The 'Group of Death' elimination match was a match that could have possible been fit for a grand final of the Major and was instead nestled into a best-of-one corner of Group D as G2 and fnatic fought a desperate war of attrition to determine who would leave ESL One Cologne 2016 in 13-16th place.
The Swedes won the first pistolround on Train via a T-side take that saw Jesper "JW" Wecksell pick up two kills for his team. After the anti-ecos, G2 began to deploy a solid defense as Richard "shox" Papillon and Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux picked up double AWP kills each to win the first gunround for the French-Belgian team.
An AK47 triple kill from Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom on the fifth round shut down a fnatic take and G2 continued to dominate fnatic for a few more rounds, such as on the eigth round when Cédric "RpK" Guipouy won a one-versus-three clutch.
With G2 on a 6-3 lead, fnatic called a tactical timeout and resorted to the tried and tested "Rush B with Tec-9s" tactic, which actually worked out. With fnatic on the comeback, the eleventh round saw a highlight worthy shot as Robin "flusha" Rönnquist won a one-versus-two in an afterplant situation on the B site with a double kill collateral AWP shot.
fnatic barely survived their elimination match scrape with G2
G2 claimed the fourteenth round but fnatic eventually closed out the half with a 8-7 lead. The second pistolround saw G2 opt for an A-site take but flusha shut that down with three USP kills and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson cleaned up the round with the final two as fnatic advanced to 9-7.
fnatic moved ahead to a 11-7 lead but G2 then managed to successfully take the first gunround, partially as a result of double kill from ScreaM in an afterplant situation. G2 picked up the next three rounds to equalise the score at 11-11.
Strong defending from fnatic, including multikills from JW helped the Swedish team seal the next three rounds and put the score at 14-11. The 26th round looked as if G2 had won it despite a pistolbuy, with the bomb planted on A and shox picking up three, but a defuse by Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer was successful due to passive play from G2.
G2 won two more rounds by the skin of their teeth to bring the score to 15-13, and then fnatic pulled a quintessential "fnatic round" out of the bag and closed the map out 16-13, thereby eliminating G2 early on in the tournament.
fnatic
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 2.0
22 - 19
+3
81.2
1.22
22 - 17
+5
85.7
1.19
24 - 24
0
88.1
1.10
19 - 22
-3
74.8
0.91
15 - 23
-8
50.9
0.71
G2
K - D
+/-
ADR
Rating 2.0
27 - 19
+8
107.8
1.46
22 - 21
+1
76.7
1.15
22 - 21
+1
64.4
1.03
20 - 21
-1
72.6
0.98
14 - 21
-7
73.1
0.90
Day three of ESL One Cologne 2016 will feature four best-of-three decider matches, as teams will fight for the four remaining Legends and playoffs spots at the Major.
stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter